News / The State Secretary for Tourism presents the Europe Senior Tourism programme in Poland
The State Secretary for Tourism presents the Europe Senior Tourism programme in Poland
Poland, 01/12/2009
The State Secretary for Tourism, Joan Mesquida, has travelled to Warsaw to present the Europe Senior Tourism pilot project in the Polish market, the country with the third most reservations for the programme for this winter season.
Mesquida had a meeting with the Polish Under-secretary for Tourism where presented the project and requested his collaboration in this trans-national initiative. Poland is the third country in number of travel reservations through the Europe Senior Tourism programme, after Greece and Italy.
In order to spread awareness of the project in Poland, a presentation and press conference were arranged for the State Secretary with the county's main communications media, both general, and those specialising in the tourist sector. Also invited to the presentation were the organisations related with the senior segment, and the eight local agencies who market the product in the country.
Since the Spanish tourist office opened in Poland in 2003, the number of Polish tourists in Spain has risen from 125,000, to 400,000 in 2008. In the period between January and October of this year, it is the only market, apart from the United States, which has shown an increase in the number of tourists (2.1%).
The Europe Senior Tourism pilot project is a joint initiative between the National Department of Tourism and the governments of Andalusia and the Balearic Islands which was created to combat seasonality, encourage the creation and maintenance of employment in the low season, and to contribute to the construction of the concept of European citizenship.
In fact, one of the priorities of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce with regards the Spanish Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2010 is to include the sector's point of view in the EU policies which affect tourism, and particularly to promote senior tourism in Europe.
The Lisbon Treaty, now in effect, includes tourism as a new area in which the EU will have competences to support, coordinate and complement the policies of Member States, particularly in aspects concerning the competitiveness of European companies belonging to this sector.
The company Viajes Zoetrope, which operates commercially in 15 European countries, has been enlisted to develop the Europe Senior Tourism project, by offering partially subsidised trips to Spain for over 55s in 4-star hotels between October 2009 and April 2010.
